From the moment we roll out our mat or practice yoga directly on the Earth, the energy below us becomes the soil upon which our practice will bear fruits. As we settle down on our mat and begin to breathe with more awareness, the mat becomes our terrain from where we will cultivate the seeds of our practice that will bear fruits to savor during the flow, and more importantly after the practice is complete. Like a tree, we have roots, body, branches, and can bear fruits. Have you ever observed how a tree grows?

As a seed is planted in the ground, it immediately begins to develop a relationship with the soil, air, water, and sun. The ground offers the seed a platform from which it can rise. Air provides oxygen, water gives nourishment, and the sun is the enlightenment from which the seed finds inspiration to emerge. The seed is in its full kavana as it comfortably cuddles into the sacred space created for its growth.

As it sprouts, the seed suddenly shatters and loses itself entirely. If the seed had a mind, it would certainly think that its life were over, that it had been betrayed. Then, at the very moment the seed loses everything of its tiny shell-body, the roots begin to form, reaching deep into the earth. The sprout rises from the earth. The roots develop a spine, a central channel to flow life into, and slowly its new body begins to take shape.

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Our practice of yoga can be that of gardening the seeds of our soul. How we choose to begin a practice will be the stage of planting seeds onto the mat, and what is important is the kavana, the intention we wish to cultivate. As we begin to move our body into a sequence of various poses, we have available our inner water of wisdom, our air of breath, and our sun, the light of our heart, to irrigate the seeds of our soul and move into the soil of awareness. The energy that blossoms through our practice and how it changes us will be the fruits we will enjoy from our yoga.

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The idea of connecting Kabalah and yoga is based on the intention of cultivating the seeds of our yoga practice so they bear the fruits of our soul that we may savor. By moving the body with awareness of the shapes of the letters, we embrace their energy and great wisdom that has existed since the beginning of time—a wisdom that empowers, heals, and enhances our entire life.

Kabalah Yoga is a hatha practice with the awareness that the postures are powerful tools that help you journey deeply inward toward your essence by discovering your soul in the body of the postures. Hatha is a Sanskrit term that means ha, “the sun,” and tha, “the moon,” and refers to the union of two opposites. While Kabalah maybe compared to the light of your soul that shines in you, yoga is similar to the moon, your body vessel that carries this light. Kabalah Yoga implies that the practice is intended to bring harmony between your body and soul by cultivating yourself inwardly and outwardly.

Kabalah Yoga is the fruit that grew from seeds I planted early in my life and have ever since been irrigating. My body has served me as the ground through which I could find the expression of my soul.

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From Audi's book Kabalah Yoga, Embodying the Hidden Power of the Sacred Hebrew Letters, Reveal Press, New Harbinger Publications.

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